“ ‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.
Parallel Translations
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“ ‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.
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Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
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Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.
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Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Leviticus 19:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 26:2 “ ‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.
- Leviticus 19:3 “ ‘Each one of you shall respect his mother and his father. You shall keep my Sabbaths. I am Yahweh your God.
- Ecclesiastes 5:1 Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil.
- Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
- Leviticus 16:2 and Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Most Holy Place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark; lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.
- Psalms 89:7 a very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, to be feared above all those who are around him?
- Matthew 21:13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”
- 2 Corinthians 6:16 What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.”
- Genesis 28:16-17 Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.” He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”
- Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Yahweh spoke of, saying, ‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” Aaron held his peace.
- Leviticus 15:31 “ ‘Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, so they will not die in their uncleanness when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.’ ”
- 2 Chronicles 33:7 He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.
- 2 Chronicles 36:14 Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted Yahweh’s house which he had made holy in Jerusalem.
- John 2:15-16 He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money and overthrew their tables. To those who sold the doves, he said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!”
- 1 Peter 4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?
- Ezekiel 9:6 Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they began at the old men who were before the house.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lev 19:30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence…
Lev 19:30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I [am] the LORD.
Ver. 30. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths.] Twice in this chapter is this commanded, that it may be the better remembered: and that men may know that it is not enough to rest on that day, but that rest must be sanctified by a reverent resorting to the sanctuary, and not profaned by running into whorehouses and tippling houses, as in Germany; where Alfred {a} complains and says, that if the Sabbath day should be named according to many men’s observing of it, Daemoniacus potius quam Dominicus vocaretur.
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And reverence my sanctuary.] Come we must into the places of God’s worship, with an inward awe and fear of his presence, and not as into a dancing school as some do. "How fearful is this place," saith Jacob. It is the place of angels and archangels, the kingdom of God, it is heaven itself, saith Chrysostom. {b} Away then with all careless negligence and carnal security.
{a} Alsted., Encyc.
{b} Hom. 36, ad 1 Cor. iv.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Not presuming to approach it without reverence, or with…
Not presuming to approach it without reverence, or with any kind of uncleanness upon you.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, I. A law for the preserving of…
Here is, I. A law for the preserving of the honour of the time and place appropriated to the service of God, Lev 19:30. This would be a means to secure them both from the idolatries and superstitions of the heathen and from all immoralities in conversation. 1. Sabbaths must be religiously observed, and not those times mentioned (Lev 19:26) to which the heathen had a superstitious regard. 2. The sanctuary must be reverenced: great care must be taken to approach the tabernacle with that purity and preparation which the law required, and to attend there with that humility, decency, and closeness of application which became them in the immediate presence of such an awful majesty. Though now there is no place holy by divine institution, as the tabernacle and temple then were, yet this law obliges us to respect the solemn assemblies of Christians for religious worship, as being held under a promise of Christ's special presence in them, and to carry ourselves with a due decorum while in those assemblies we attend the administration of holy ordinances, Ecc 5:1.
II. A caution against all communion with witches, and those that were in league with familiar spirits: "Regard them not, seek not after them, be not in fear of any evil from them nor in hopes of any good from them. Regard not their threatenings, or promises, or predictions; seek not to them for discovery or advice, for, if you do, you are defiled by it, and rendered abominable both to God and your own consciences." This was the sin that completed Saul's wickedness, for which he was rejected of God, Ch1 10:13.
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III. A charge to young people to show respect to the aged: Thou shall rise up before the hoary head, Lev 19:32. Age is honourable, and he that is the Ancient of days requires that honour be paid to it. The hoary head is a crown of glory. Those whom God has honoured with the common blessing of long life we ought to honour with the distinguishing expressions of civility; and those who in age are wise and good are worthy of double honour: more respect is owing to such old men than merely to rise up before them; their credit and comfort must be carefully consulted, their experience and observations improved, and their counsels asked and hearkened to, Job 32:6, Job 32:7. Some, by the old man whose face or presence is to be honoured, understand the elder in office, as by the hoary head the elder in age; both ought to be respected as fathers, and in the fear of God, who has put some of his honour upon both. Note, Religion teaches good manners, and obliges us to give honour to those to whom honour is due. It is an instance of great degeneracy and disorder in a land when the child behaves himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable, Isa 3:5; Job 30:1, Job 30:12. It becomes the aged to receive this honour, and the younger to give it; for it is the ornament as well as duty of their youth to order themselves lowly and reverently to all their betters.
IV. A charge to the Israelites to be very tender of strangers, Lev 19:33, Lev 19:34. Both the law of God and his providence had vastly dignified Israel above any other people, yet they must not therefore think themselves authorized to trample upon all mankind but those of their own nation, and to insult them at their pleasure; no, "Thou shall not vex a stranger, but love him as thyself, and as one of thy own people." It is supposed that this stranger was not an idolater, but a worshipper of the God of Israel, though not circumcised, a proselyte of the gate at least, though not a proselyte of righteousness: if such a one sojourned among them, they must not vex him, nor oppress, nor over-reach him in a bargain, taking advantage of his ignorance of their laws and customs; they must reckon it as great a sin to cheat a stranger as to cheat an Israelite; "nay" (say the Jewish doctors) "they must not so much as upbraid him with his being a stranger, and his having been formerly an idolater." Strangers are God's particular care, as the widow and the fatherless are, because it is his honour to help the helpless, Psa 146:9. It is therefore at our peril if we do them any wrong, or put any hardships upon them. Strangers shall be welcome to God's grace, and therefore we should do what we can to invite them to it, and to recommend religion to their good opinion. It argues a generous disposition, and a pious regard to God, as a common Father, to be kind to strangers; for those of different countries, customs, and languages, are all made of one blood. But here is a reason added peculiar to the Jews: "For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. God then favoured you, therefore do you now favour the strangers, and do to them as you then wished to be done to. You were strangers, and yet are now thus highly advanced; therefore you know not what these strangers may come to, whom you are apt to despise."
V. Justice in weights and measures is here commanded. That there should be no cheat in them, Lev 19:35. That they should be very exact, Lev 19:36. In weighing and measuring, we pretend a design to give all those their own whom we deal with; but, if the weights and measures be false, it is like a corruption in judgment, it cheats under colour of justice; and thus to deceive a man to his damage is worse than picking his pocket or robbing him on the highway. He that sells is bound to give the full of the commodity, and he that buys the full of the price agreed upon, which cannot be done without just balances, weights, and measures. Let no man go beyond or defraud his brother, for, though it be hidden from man, it will be found that God is the avenger of all such.
VI. The chapter concludes with a general command (Lev 19:37): You shall observe all my statutes, and do them. Note, 1. We are not likely to do God's statutes, unless we observe them with great care and consideration. 2. Yet it is not enough barely to observe God's precepts, but we must make conscience of obeying them. What will it avail us to be critical in our notions, if we be not conscientious in our conversations? 3. An upright heart has respect to all God's commandments, Psa 119:6. Though in many instances the hand fails in doing what should be done, yet the eye observes all God's statutes. We are not allowed to pick and choose our duty, but must aim at standing complete in all the will of God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Ye shall keep my sabbaths,.... By attending to the…
Ye shall keep my sabbaths,.... By attending to the worship and service of God on sabbath days, they and their children would be preserved from the idolatry of the Gentiles, and all the filthy practices attending it:
and reverence my sanctuary; and not defile it by such impurities as were committed in the temples of idols: the sanctuary being an holy place, sacred to him whose name is holy and reverend, and where was the seat of his glorious Majesty, and therefore not to be defiled by fornication or idolatry, or by doing anything in it unseemly and unbecoming; see Gill on Mar 11:16,
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I am the Lord; who had appointed the observance of the sabbath day, and dwelt in the sanctuary, and therefore expected that the one would be kept and the other reverenced, and neither of them polluted.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary--This…
Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary--This precept is frequently repeated along with the prohibition of idolatrous practices, and here it stands closely connected with the superstitions forbidden in the previous verses.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 30. Sanctuary — The tabernacle, the place of Jehovah’s…
30. Sanctuary — The tabernacle, the place of Jehovah’s abode among men, was reverenced when Israel approached in ceremonial and moral purity, bringing the required offerings in humility and penitence.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. Ye shall keep my sabbaths] Cp. Lev_19:3.
30. Ye shall keep my sabbaths] Cp. Lev_19:3.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (30) Ye shall keep my sabbaths.—The greatest safeguard against…
(30) Ye shall keep my sabbaths.—The greatest safeguard against the above-named abomination, and the surest way to fulfil the Divine commands, is by keeping the Sabbath day, and following the instruction imparted on this day of rest. (See Lev_19:3.)
And reverence my sanctuary—which the Israelites frequented on the Sabbath. (See Exo_35:3.) The way to reverence the sanctuary, according to the definition of the Jewish canonists, was for an Israelite not to come into the sanctuary when legally defiled, not to ascend the mountain of the house of God with his staff in his hand, with his shoes on his feet, in his working clothes, with the dust on his feet, or carrying bags of money about his person, not to spit in the sacred precincts, or make them a thoroughfare. It is in reference to the last-mentioned rule that we are told Christ “would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the Temple” (Mar_11:16)—He would not allow them to use the sacred precincts as a short cut.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The command in this verse differs from that in…
The command in this verse differs from that in verse 3 by adding the injunction to reverence my sanctuary to that requiring the observance of the sabbath. It is a matter of experience that where the sabbath is not kept, God"s sanctuary is not reverenced, and that that reverence increases or fails away according as the obligation of the sabbatical law, whether in its Jewish form or its Christian form, be more or less recognized. The sabbatical ordinance is necessary as a previous condition of religious worship. Without it, the business and pleasure of the world are too strong to give way to the demands upon time made by the stated service of God. The verse is repeated in Lev_26:2. "When the Lord"s day is kept holy, and a holy reverence for the Lord"s sanctuary lives in the heart, not only are many sins avoided, but social and domestic life is pervaded by the fear of God, and characterized by devoutness and propriety" (Keil).
Three helps to spiritual progress.
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"There are many adversaries," it is true; many drawbacks, hindrances, difficulties in the way of spiritual advancement. But there are these three powerful aids.
I ONE SACRED DAY IN EVERY SEVEN. "Ye shall keep my sabbaths." God has wrested from an exacting, rapacious world one-seventh of human life, and given it to us for the culture of the soul, for spiritual growth, for sacred usefulness. The observance of the sabbath is an act of
(1) filial obedience to God, and
(2) wise regard for our own true welfare.
II A PLACE FOR SOCIAL WORSHIP. "Ye shall reverence my sanctuary." We have all the advantage of social influences, the impulse which comes from association, to impress, to direct, to establish the soul in heavenly wisdom. We should worship regularly at the sanctuary, because
(1) we should not draw so near to God elsewhere, or gain in any other place such spiritual nourishment;
(2) worship there helps to devotion everywhere.
III DEVOTEDNESS OF HEART TO X DIVINE BEING-. "I am the Lord." Not the ineffectual endeavour to fill and feed, to nourish and strengthen the soul with admirable abstractions; but holy thought and sanctifying feeling gathered round a Divine One: directed toward him who says, "Trust me, love me, follow me, exalt me. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Ye shall keep My Sabbaths.
Lev_19:30
Ye shall keep My Sabbaths.
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Sabbatic pause
Sabbath is a compound condition of the body and the soul. Misrepresentation of Sabbath, the forfeiture of its vitality, betrays itself in a negative conception of it, as restriction, deprivation, tax, and task. This allusion prevails at large, and prevails in two forms--religious cant and religious laxity, disrelish, or disdain. The latter is engendered in the former. Narrow natures, narrow Sabbath ideals; hard natures make them hard. They localise and dwarf the conception, as a measure of time, and a matter of law. The scope of the Sabbath is the happiness of man, the serenity of the race. It is intended to rescue the world from recklessness and ruin, from riot and from rot, from hardship, hazard, and over-haste. Sabbath is soul-rest. Its purpose is to train us to enjoy this earth in the light of everlasting life, and the glory of the gracious God, and not be slaves of time. The Sabbath is for the sanctity of peace, the satisfaction of the spiritual nature. It therefore takes the spirit away, not only from tasks and toils and trudges of its ordinary earth life, but from the worry and whirl of all the outer world. It persuades the soul to rest in God, as God rests on behalf of man; and to joy in His creation as He joyed, as His creation joys in Him. It begins by saying, You must, in order to say, You may. This silences the plea of lax indulgence which so many put up for spending a godless Sunday as the substitute of Sabbath. An uneasy Sunday is no Sabbath at all. They are restless and restive who press this very argument of recreation and of rest. Come, say they, Sunday is a holy day--a holiday. Now, to get as far from heaven as may be; now, to leave out God; now, let loose to enjoy nature, the fields, the forests, the ocean views. To enjoy the works of nature is the best way to keep the Sabbath holy, if you can call the Sabbath a delight. To take a walk, if you know how to walk with God. To rest, if you know how to rest in Christ. If you cannot read His glory in the page of nature, you are a child rustling a newspaper while yet it cannot read. That is dull enough. If you never get an ocean view, but such as the frolicking crowd get on the beach, or the chattering, giddy throng on the steamers deck, puffing smoke against the sky and babbling--earth to earth, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes--to each other, or staring at the sea in sickly sentimentality, then the ocean takes no notice of you, and has not the pleasure of your acquaintance. If that is your fresh-air relaxation, and that your innocent diversion, and that your poetry of nature, and your ocean sublimity, you have never seen an ocean at all,. and know not what it is, not knowing what it means, and natures poetry to you is no more than negro minstrelsy, and the landscape yawns, and the skies wax dull, an& instead of having a Sabbath delight, you find a blight, a burden, and a bondage. Sabbath, like music, is a treat to those alone who know how to enjoy it. The day of the Sabbath without the Sabbath of the day is gloomy to the last degree. There are Sabbatic thoughts privileged to take on the complexion of the heavens, as the stilled lake, the azure of the firmament. If you are enjoying a book or a picture, you need to take a time when other things shall not interfere. To intermingle is to mar. There is a beatific converse. If you are communing with a confidential friend, do you like to have anybody else talking in the room at the same time? What the third person says may be all well enough and wise enough, or important. But please do not interrupt, you say; I am very much engaged for this hour. Opportunities of heaven make appointments as reserved and entertain celestial visitants as well. There are rounded Sabbaths, different from Sunday fractions. Many count the day at large as somewhat sacred, but miss the mantling of the hours, the swell and climax. A wholeness is essential to the pleasure. You will not get a schoolboy or schoolgirl who has a half-holiday in the morning to go back to tasks and training in the after hours of the day. They say, Let us finish this. A little longer. And no one who has had a spiritual zest, a melody and beauty of celestial vision for the first portion of the day, will care to spend its latter half in listlessness or lower use. The people who worship by halves, by halves will serve their Maker through the week. If you can introduce upon this land the Continental Sabbath, you can introduce the Continental history upon this land. But the day is complete when the evening and the morning round it. There can be Sunday struggles, Sunday tasks, Sunday burdens, and there can be a Sabbath of the spirit. That is of God, the beauty of the Lord our God upon us. (H. S. Carpenter.)
Advantage of Sabbath keeping
Man! Man! This is the great creator of wealth. The difference between the soil of Campauia and Spitzbergcn is insignificant compared with the difference presented by two countries--the one inhabited by men full of moral and physical vigour, the other by beings plunged in an intellectual decrepitude. Hence it is that we are not impoverished, but on the contrary enriched by this seventh day, which we have for so many years devoted to rest. This day is not lost. While the machinery is stopped, while the ear rests on the road, while the treasury is silent, while the smoke ceases to rise from the chimney of the factory, the nation enriches itself none the less than during the working days of the week. Man, the machine of all machines, the one by the side of which all the inventions of the Watts and the Ark wrights are as nothing, is recuperating and gaining strength so well, that on Monday he returns to his work with his mind clearer, with more courage for his work, and with renewed vigour. I will never believe that that which renders a people stronger, wiser, and better, can ever turn to its impoverishment.
Neglecting the Sabbath
Sir Francis Drake, though a curious searcher after the revolution of time, in three years sailing about the world, through the variations of several climates, lost one whole day, which was scarce considerable in so long a time. It is to be feared that there are many amongst us that lose a day in every week, one in seven, neglecting the Sabbath, nay every day in the week, not once thinking of God, or any goodness at all. (J. Spencer.)
Lev_19:30
Reverence My sanctuary.
Self-reverence
If you consider, you will find that there is scarcely a sin which does not concentrate into itself the venom of many sins. It is sinfulness against God, whose law it violates; against our neighbour, whom, directly or indirectly, it inevitably injures; against ourselves, whom it tends to destroy. But the reason why every sin has this threefold cord of iniquity is because the tabernacle of God is with men, so that in every act of sin we cannot but sin against Him by defiling His temple, against ourselves by desecrating the inner sanctuary of our own being, against others because they, too, are His living sanctuaries. When the great American orator, Daniel Webster, was asked what thought impressed him most by its awful solemnity, he answered at once, The thought of my immediate accountability to God. There is a form of this thought yet more impressive--to feel that God is with us and in us; that every sin against ourselves or our brother-man is also a sin committed in His very presence-chamber, and therefore also a sin committed directly against Him. In sinning against myself, I sin not against a mere handful of dust, a mere piece of clay, but against that which is majestic, eternal, and Divine, against the Holy Spirit, against the Lord Jesus my Saviour, against the eternal Lord of all my life. A living poet has said, Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, these three alone lead life to sovereign power. It is most true. Self-reverence depends upon self-knowledge, and it leads to self-control; and these are the elements of the only true greatness of mankind. Now I wish to show how this high reverence for our being lifts men above temptation, and how the absence of it or unfaithfulness to it plunges them in vice and shame. For instance, self-reverence results in the preservation of innocence, of perfect childlike innocence in some men, the heart of childhood taken up and glorified in the powers of manhood, the young lambs heart amid the full-grown flocks. This is one of the loveliest, certainly one of the rarest, if not always the most instructive, forms of human character. Again, this self-reverence, even if it has failed to produce this absolute innocence which is the rarest thing in all the world, may yet lead to the repentance of an intense conviction. If it has not kept a soul from lying, for a moment at least, among the dust and potsherds of a sensuous life, it can yet uplift it from them and give it the wings of a dove. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
On reverencing the sanctuary
I. How the sanctuary is to be reverenced.
1. The sanctuary is reverenced when proper ideas are entertained of its nature and holiness. This appropriate and sacred respect will be shown by not permitting the sanctuary to be dishonoured by any profane use of it, by keeping it in decent repair and cleanliness, and, as far as in us lies, in a state of magnificence worthy of the Great Being to whom it is dedicated; and by those outward tokens of reverence, by which we can express, without an idle superstition, our respect for the Being, the dwelling-places of whose honour are the temples devoted to His service.
2. After having proper ideas of the nature and holiness of the sanctuary, the next step towards reverencing it is to love to be in it, and to join in its services. When a place is consecrated to the worship of God; when He has promised to be there with a blessing; when He has proffered His word to be there as a fountain, set open for sin and uncleanness; and has appointed a priesthood to minister between Him and His people; when the priesthood of Christ is there enjoyed after His ordinance; to be wholly absent, or but partially present, comports little with a reverence for the sanctuary.
3. It is essential to a reverence for the sanctuary that we strive not to bring thither our worldly thoughts and improper affections.
4. In order to discharge the duty enforced in the text, we must be attentive to decorum, when entering the sanctuary, while continuing in it, and when returning from it.
II. The foundation and importance of the duty enjoined. This is briefly and fully assigned in the words, I am the Lord.
1. If we consider the nature of the Being, to whom the sanctuary belongs, and whom we there meet, this is sufficient to fill us with awe.
2. The authority of the Lord, as our Sovereign, renders an obedience to His law indispensable. (Bp. Dehon.)
Reverence due to holy places
I. What a sanctuary of god is, and wherein the holiness of it consists. Places are capable of a relative holiness in two respects.
1. In respect of a peculiar propriety God has in them by their dedication to His immediate worship and service.
2. In respect of His especial presence vouchsafed in them, and the particular communications of His grace in the holy offices there performed.
II. What respect or reverence is due to such holy places.
1. The building, repairing, adorning, and furnishing such places for the service of God.
2. The keeping them from all profane and common usage, and applying them wholly to the worship of God, and the business of religion.
3. The duly frequenting the worship of God in these holy places (Psa_43:3; Psa_84:2; Psa_84:4.)
4. Consider what reverence becomes us when we come into the House of God. Our business there is to exercise ourselves in holy and heavenly matters; and our demeanour in it ought to be such as may testify what awful thoughts we have of that glorious Majesty, before whom, in a particular manner, we present ourselves. (John Leng, B. D.)
The reverence due to Gods sanctuary
The reverence we owe to public places of worship must be expressed
I. In solemnly separating them from common use. Churches, when once consecrated, cannot be alienated from Gods service without sacrilege, nor applied to any other use without profanation; for, as the Divine Majesty is holy, so it is manifestly a part of that honour we owe to God, that those things wherewith and whereby He is served should not be common and promiscuous, but reserved solely for sacred purposes.
II. In the beautifying and adorning them. Shall the Almighty vouchsafe, in a peculiar manner, to take up His residence among us here on earth, and shall not we endeavour to provide the most honourable reception for Him? The bestowing proper ornaments upon Gods house is not only an instance of respect due from us to Him, but is also a useful means of promoting religion; for outward objects will always affect the mind with impressions, according to the nature of them.
III. By a constant attendance upon the services in them. God, no doubt, is conscious to our most private devotions in our closets, to every ejaculation, to every pious thought that ever rises in our souls; He requires these, and approves of them; but then He expects, and commands also, that we pay Him public homage and external worship, wherein if we are deficient, we discharge but half our duty.
IV. By a decent and devout behaviour in them. As earthly potentates have many palaces in several parts of their dominions, where at different times they keep their court, one whereof is generally erected in their principal city, superior in magnificence and grandeur to the rest: so the Almighty, the King of kings, has His several mansion-houses throughout the world, though His chief dwelling be in heaven, where He is encircled with beams of light and glory, too strong for mortals to approach. These mansion-houses in these lower realms are those places that are dedicated and consecrated to His service, in which He is ever present, ready to dispense liberally His favours to all that duly ask, surrounded with a guard of angels and archangels, who to us indeed are invisible, but we are not so to them. With what humility, with what reverence and devotion, then, ought we to carry ourselves, in a place so dreadful as is the house of God, and in the presence of such honourable, such awful company! (S. Grigman, M. A.)
Reverence at worship
There are some who, when they behave irreverently in church, think that, after all, it is only a matter that concerns themselves. That if they do not behave well, thats, as they term it, their own look-out. Of all the mistakes of which a man could be guilty, this is, I think, one of the greatest. Do you think that when you behave badly in church you wilt, at the day of account, only have that one sin of your own to answer for? Let me tell you this--that every sin of irreverence adds to you a mountain of sins for which you will have to give account at the Day of Judgment. Let me illustrate my meaning. You come to a service and behave badly. There are people, good people, sitting or kneeling around you. They have come to church to worship, but they see your bad behaviour and are upset by it. They try to pray, but through your bad behaviour they cannot do so. They try to join in the service but find it almost impossible. It is a wasted service to them. They feel angry: it is a Sunday service gone for ever, never to be re-lived so far as that Sunday service is concerned, spoiled for them by you. Who will have to answer for that at the Day of Judgment? Not they, but you! (E. Husband.)
Man himself a sanctuary
St. Augustine gives the inmost meaning of this exhortation when he says, Dost thou worship in a temple? Worship in thyself; be thou first a temple of the Lord.
Our visits to the sanctuary should be frequent
We shall never see the glory of that light which dwells between the cherubim if our visits to the shrine are brief and interrupted, and the bulk of our time is spent outside the tabernacle amidst the glaring sand and the blazing sunshine. No short swallow-flights of soul will ever carry us to the serene height where God dwells. It is the eagle, with steady, unflagging flaps of his broad pinion, and open-eyed gaze upwards, that rises close to the sun in lonely lands, and leaves all the race of short.winged and weak-sighted twitterers far below. (A. Maclaren.)
Worshipping together
Worshipping alone is like a solo in music, very beautiful and entrancing, with charms that no chorus can give. Worshipping together is like an anthem with its harmonies sung by a large chorus. There are powers in it and emotions awakened, which no solo, however beautifully sung, can produce. Christians who worship in the house of God in company with other Christians will receive blessings that they would not receive worshipping by themselves.
The sanctuary
The sanctuary should always be considered as the home of the people. It is in the sanctuary that human life should be interpreted in all the meaning of its pain and tragedy. Men should be able to say, Now that we are baffled and perplexed by the things which are round about us in this world, and now that we find ourselves utterly unable to solve the problems which crowd upon our distracted minds, let us go unto the house of the Lord, for there we shall feel upon our souls the breath of eternity, and there we shall hear music which will quiet the tumult which carnal reason can neither explain nor control. Dark will be the day when men can hear nothing in the sanctuary but words which they cannot understand, references which have no bearing upon immediate agony, and discussions which simply tittilate the intellect and the fancy, but never reach the dark and mortal sorrows of the heart. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 19:30 Sabbath days: The Hebrew word translated “Sabbath” (shabbath)…
19:30 Sabbath days: The Hebrew word translated “Sabbath” (shabbath) is related to a verb which means simply “to cease,” implying rest from one’s labor. The Sabbath commemorated God’s resting on the seventh day after he had completed his work of creation (Gen 1:31; 2:1-3). It began at sundown on the sixth day. With the exodus from Egypt, the Sabbath gained covenantal significance (Exod 16:23-25; 31:13). Because only free people, not slaves, had a regular day of rest, the Sabbath became symbolic of Israel’s liberation from bondage in Egypt (see Deut 5:13-15). • The people were to show reverence (literally fear) because the sanctuary, like the Sabbath, was holy. They were not to enter it when they were unclean or bring anything unclean into it.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.